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My Top 10 of 2013https://burnthatmovie.wordpress.com/2014/01/19/my-top-10-of-2013/
https://burnthatmovie.wordpress.com/2014/01/19/my-top-10-of-2013/#commentsSun, 19 Jan 2014 06:16:21 +0000http://burnthatmovie.wordpress.com/?p=302

No matter what your taste in movies is, if you go see whatever is playing at the moment or if you only watch them if Rotten Tomatoes says so, I think we can all agree on one thing: 2013 was an amazing year for movies. For every garbage put together, there was a well-done motion picture waiting right besides it. This made my Top 10 of the year a particularly hard one, since it was almost impossible for me to choose what great movies I would have to leave out. In the end, I was able to be fair with my decisions, and here it is for all of you to see!

Note: I’m a college student, which means the amount of money in my bank account is probably less than or equal to a 6-year-old’s piggy bank. So basically, I can’t be going to the movies that often while I’m at school. There are a lot of movies that have amazing ratings and that I know would probably make my top 10 list that I have yet to watch.

1. The Wolf of Wall Street

Before I actually watched this film, I was certain it was going to end up being one of my favorite movies of the year. It’s Martin Scorsese directing a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, with supporting roles from Jonah Hill, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, Jean Dujardin, and so many other amazing actors. Then I saw it. At 2 hours and 59 minutes, I cannot think of one moment in which I was distracted or not entertained. This movie is the definition of pure cinematic perfection, and it is Scorsese’s best film to date, along with Goodfellas. The Wolf of Wall Street, based on the real life accounts of Wall Street fraudster Jordan Belfort, is filled with as much sex, drugs, partying, and language (the word “f*ck” is used in this movie 569 times, the most ever in a non-documentary movie), which has brought a lot of criticism from critics and media likewise, even being banned in some countries. The fact that Scorsese was asked to cut the movie by almost an hour to avoid an NC-17 rating can pretty much tell you what to expect. But it is this extreme excess that makes this movie so real and perfect; it accurately tells us the story of Jordan Belfort, the most powerful person that Wall Street may have ever had, from his rise all the way down to his fall. And, by the love of the movie gods, GIVE DICAPRIO THE DAMN OSCAR!!!!

2. 12 Years a Slave

Never in my life had I had such a hard time watching a movie. It is the most disturbing, realistic, and honest movie about slavery to have ever come out, and I am thankful that I had the chance to watch it. Usually in other movies, I can feel a connection to the main character; in 12 Years a Slave, I felt as if I actually was Solomon Northup. I could feel his sorrows; his pains; his angers; his nerves. This is thanks to the amazing direction by Steve McQueen and the unbelievably superb acting by English actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, who is, in fact, the only actor this year to measure up to Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street. Along with all this, we have an excellent ensemble cast which includes Michael Fassbender, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, and newcomer Lupita Nyong’o, who has already been given an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. 12 Years a Slave is definitely not a movie for the faint of heart, but if you can handle watching a movie that truly depicts the horror that was slavery, this movie is an absolute must-see.

3. Philomena

With so many great movies to choose from, audiences were surprised when Philomena got an Oscar nomination for Best Picture of the Year. I can definitely see why it did. No other movie has touched my heart like this one since I saw The Intouchables last year. Led by the most likable leads of the year, Philomena is a dramedy that follows Philomena, played by a marvelous Judi Dench, as she looks for her lost son 50 years after he was put into adoption by the mean Irish nuns that were in charge of the monastery where Philomena lived. To help her with this is writer Martin Sixsmith, played equally well by Steve Coogan. The movie is perfectly written (Steve Coogan actually co-wrote it), and knows exactly when it should be sad, serious, or just simply funny. What I actually found most pleasant about this film was its take on religion. The movie can sometimes seem to be mean against either atheists or Catholics, though it never really means to be plain offensive. The movie definitely criticizes the way the Irish Church nuns used to treat the younger ones, who were mostly put there by obligation and not by their own will, along with other criticism of a few ideals that might not be generally accepted in the present day. However, it never forgets to be respectful to those who follow Catholicism, and clearly states the idea of how forgiveness and mercy are the values by which we should live.

4. American Hustle

American Hustle is one of the best times I had at the movies this year, and you can tell that the cast had a great time filming this movie too, which makes it even better. Though not as much of a masterpiece as The Wolf of Wall Street, this movie is equally entertaining as it is eye-catching, with such great direction from David O. Russell. The movie is impeccably cast, with Christian Bale and Amy Adams giving the best acting they have done in their entire careers (which are full of great movies) and an amazing supporting cast that includes the actress of the moment, Jennifer Lawrence, along with Bradley Cooper, and Jeremy Renner. Even better is the fact that this movie will keep you guessing until the end, where everything falls into place and you are pretty freakin’ amazed by what just happened.

5. The Way Way Back

In a year filled with coming-of-age stories, The Way Way Back was the best one out of the bunch. It follows Duncan, played extremely well by Liam James, a kid who has more problems in his life than the usual kid his age, and whose summer is not off to a good start until he meets water park manager Owen, played by the always-great Sam Rockwell. What I particularly loved about this movie is the fact that it is much like in real life. Duncan’s main problem is that he wants to like himself, but having a not so supportive stepdad (Steve Carrell) and stepsister, plus a mom (Toni Collette) who means good but doesn’t really show it, it can be pretty hard to have all his problems fixed in one summer. Instead, the movie shows you how he progresses, thanks to his new friend Owen, who gave him a job at the water park for the summer, which coincidentally shows how Duncan has grown up mentally during that summer, being able to face problems on his own. The Way Way Back is an extremely entertaining movie, and an extremely well executed movie all in all.

6. Blue Jasmine

Every year, Woody Allen releases one movie. Every year, I am looking forward to it. After 2012’s To Rome With Love, which was good but not great, I was expecting to see a better film, and I was not let down. Blue Jasmine is, along with Midnight in Paris, my favorite Woody Allen movie. And it is so completely different from his previous work. It is not much centered in a love study, but in one person in particular whose love story is nothing but depressing, and you can tell by her way of being. Jasmine is one of the most interesting characters of 2013, and this is mainly thanks to the Oscar-deserving acting done by Cate Blanchett. She is able to portray to perfection the unstable Jasmine, making the movie that much better. To this, add the great supporting cast, led by Alec Baldwin, Sally Hawkins, Louis C.K., and other wonderful actors. Blue Jasmine is the type of movie that does not come along that often, but when it does, you are extremely glad you had the chance to watch it.

7. The World’s End

I hated this movie. I absolutely hated it. I hated it because it is literally the end, the end of the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy. The World’s End was the last film of this unintended trilogy, and it was the absolutely hilarious and amazing. Seriously, in how many movies do you get to see the heroes completely wasted out of their minds while they save the world? Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost have been working together for years now, and have made three of the most brilliant comedies of the 2000s, and quite probably of all time. This one is no exception to that. In a year filled with apocalyptic after apocalyptic movies, this one takes the prize for being the best and most original one. And to add to all this, The World’s End actually has a great level of maturity; it is not all about getting drunk and killing robots/aliens, to say the least. Still, it is hilarious and entertaining from start to end, and you will love watching these comedic geniuses doing something slightly different from the first 2 films of the Cornetto Trilogy. And then, in the end, you will hate it for being the end of it all.

8. Oldboy

This movie was criticized a lot for being basically the same thing as original version and for not adding any new elements to it. I have not watched the Korean version yet, and maybe if I had, I would have not felt as strong about this movie as I do. But the fact remains, this is the one I watched, and even knowing that apparently around 40 minutes were cut from the film without Spike Lee’s approval, I thought it was a masterpiece. What Spike Lee did in this movie has not been done often: he has given us a movie that touches themes that no one else has dared touch because of the heavy criticism it might receive. Spike Lee got this criticism, criticism for daring to do new things, which in my opinion, is completely unfair. This is a heavily gruesome, cruel, violent, mind-blowing movie that had me at the edge of my seat at all times, and completely and utterly impressed with what was going. Added to this, Josh Brolin gives a performance for the ages as Joe Ducett that, in my opinion, was one of the best performances of 2013, along with a great cast which includes Samuel Jackson, Elizabeth Olsen, and a twisted Sharlto Copley. I still want to watch the original version of Oldboy, but even if I do end up liking it more than this one, it does not take away the fact that this version was perfectly executed. Oh, and if you do end up watching this one, and you have not watched the Korean version, get ready for an ending that will leave you more astonished than any other movie you have ever seen.

9. Mud

I think it is fair to say that Matthew McConaughey absolutely killed it this year. He appeared in 3 movies, and in those three movies he was absolutely perfect. Mud was the first one to come out. From the moment during last summer, I was already thinking of where it would land in my Top 10 list of 2013. Another coming-of-age story, Mud stars Tye Sheridan as Ellis, a kid with a troubled family who befriends Matthew McConaughey’s Mud, a man wanted for a crime he committed. Through this friendship, Ellis learns more about himself and grows, while Mud finds someone who truly cares about him. This movie keeps you completely interested throughout the whole time, making you create a connection with the main characters, for one knows what they must be feeling at every second of the movie. The writer and director, Jeff Nichols, beautifully crafted this movie, showing us a bit of comedy, tragedy, drama, and action, all at the right time. Mud is a film that derails from the usual coming-of-age story, taking risks that not many other movies of this style might take, and the ending result is spectacular.

10. Lee Daniels’ The Butler

Now here is a movie that I definitely expected to bring a lot of nods for the Oscar and was extremely disappointed that it did not. Lee Daniel’s The Butler is a marvelously executed film that tells the story of a butler who worked for three decades in the White House, going through seven different Presidents. Lee Daniels direction is beautiful, always setting noticeable differences for each Presidential term so that you can get a feel of the time that has passe by. And maybe if there are some faults in the narrative, the cast makes up for it. This movie lets us see in action what for me was one of the Top 5 casts of 2013. Forrest Whitaker gives his best performance in years. However, the most surprising of all for me was Oprah. I knew Oprah was a decent actor, but this movie makes me think of her as a top notch actor. Her performance in incredible, and to be real, it makes me kinda mad that she did not receive an Oscar nomination. In conclusion, Lee Daniels’ The Butler is an excellent and affecting piece of work, one that makes use of its incredible cast and that deserved more nods at the Oscars.

In this sudden urge for post-apocalyptic movies, comes yet another entry that will blow your mind away, literally. Acclaimed director/screenwriter/producer Guillermo del Toro has put his hands to work once again, this time as director and co-writer of what was sold as the biggest summer blockbuster movie that would come out: Pacific Rim. And what better way to sell such a movie than by having such a visionary director as del Toro taking part in it. This is the guy that wrote and directed the Hellboy series and the classic that is Pan’s Labyrinth. And let’s not forget, he is one of the writers in The Hobbit trilogy. So, given these facts, what can be expected from Del Toro’s Pacific Rim? As much as you can get from a movie about robots fighting aliens. In other words, you will get the most beautifully envisioned movie of the year since Oblivion, but almost no story to help it go any further than just style. What Guillermo del Toro has done here is create Oscar-worthy scenery and cinematography, but has left aside all the elements that make up for a good plot, which is probably what Guillermo del Toro is best known for, his storytelling and originality.

Pacific Rim starts off in present day 2013, when the world is attacked by colossal beasts named Kaijus, who came to Earth through a portal in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. In order to battle them, humans build the Jaegers, just as colossal machines piloted by two people at the same time whose brains are linked through the Jaeger’s system, in order to be able to control the complicated machine that is the Jaeger. However, the leaders of the nations of the Pacific Rim decide to discontinue the project in 2025, given the fact that the amount of Kaiju attacks was becoming more frequent and impossible to stop. Instead, they decide to build massive and powerful walls around the coasts in order to stop the Kaijus from entering. After hearing this, Commander Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) decides to call back Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam), the best pilot he had ever had, to join forces with the other three remaining Jaegers and stop the Apocalypse from reigning over the Earth. This will bring him to fight alongside a new rookie partner, Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), and will find him battling the biggest and strongest Kaijus that had ever set foot on Earth.

Pacific Rim is the most beautiful looking movie of this year, and it would not be a surprise if it is nominated for an Oscar based on its wonderful cinematography and special effects. The scenery is over-the-top unique. The Jaegers are amazing to look at. You can see and feel the amount of work that was put on each of its parts, be it the head, the arms, its surface, its inside, or anything else. And even with all these details to admire, all of this is nothing compared to the beauty that one beholds when they are in movement and fighting. One can easily recall the Autobots and the Decepticons fighting each other in the Tranformers movies when we see the battles in Pacific Rim, but they do not compare at all with the fights between Jaegers and Kaijus.

The Kaijus are also beautiful to gaze upon. At first look, one might think they are just some more of the same insect looking aliens that appear in every other movie regarding some extraterrestrial form. However, what I saw in the Kaijus was something different. They are some sort of a mash-up between the aliens from the Alien saga and Godzilla. All of them had some characteristics that were equally shared, like their height and the “normal” alien look one sees in other movies. However, each of them has at least one characteristic that differs them from one another. For example, the one that I thought was the most well crafted was a pretty simple one. It was a fat Kaiju. I’m serious, one of the Kaijus was fat. If I recall, there were two or maybe three Kaijus involved in this fight, and the one that I thought was the best one was the fat one. Of course, I laughed at the moment, but after that battle ended, I came to think about it, and it was absolutely genius the fact that they made a fat Kaiju. It reminded me that there was more than one Kaiju, not like in other movies that all beasts and creatures look the same, and you do not know if it was the same creature that the main character was fighting or if it was another one. It is marvelous the fact that each Kaiju was physically different. In visionary terms, Guillermo del Toro made a masterpiece of a movie with Pacific Rim.

Sadly, this is about as much as we get from Pacific Rim, just some “Wow, that looks awesome!” moments. There is not much else in this movie that Guillermo del Toro should be proud of. Like for instance, the sound editing that goes with the battles is just disturbing. All you can hear is metal pieces clashing, many things blowing up, and Kaijus screeching, among other things. Sound editing can be so much more important than visuals at times like this, and it just sounds preposterous. Just imagine going to your kitchen with four little boys hitting all the pans at the same time and one little girl yelling her lungs out. If you find that to be pleasant to your ears, then all I can say is that you have earned my respect, and I myself will pay your ticket for Pacific Rim.

However, the biggest problem of this movie is the fact that it sports a significant amount of style over a diminutive amount of substance. There is no messy plot because there really is no plot. The only story behind the movie is that there are Kaijus, and humans are trying to defeat them with Jaegers, nothing else to it. Pacific Rim relies completely on the fact that it has stunning visuals to move this film forward. This movie goes for around 130 minutes, in which maybe 30 minutes are given to actually dig into the story. And the other 100 minutes? Strictly action scenes and other unnecessary scenes with witty dialogue . And guess what? After a point, the movie isn’t even that entertaining; it just becomes plain stupid and ridiculous. It feels like the film crew first put down all the battles they wanted to see, and then decided to put some dumb story elements in between each battle not even to actually give us a plot, but to build up the momentum for the battles approaching. The characters, for example, are as shallow as they could be. “But why would we waste time developing characters? There are going to be many, many battles between robots and aliens! That is more than enough!” Wrong. Without real characters, there is no movie. And in Pacific Rim, it feels like the main characters are not even the humans, but the Jaegers.

As for acting, it is mostly okay. Charlie Hunnam as Raleigh Beckett is just your average puffed-up guy from any action movie. Rinko Kikuchi as Mako Mori is mostly tolerable, but a lot less whining would have come in very handy. Idris Elba is pretty good as Commander Stacker Pentecost, showing signs of strength as the leader of the Jaeger program. The two actors that do shine in this movie are Ron Perlman as Hannibal Chau, a Kaiju body parts seller in the black market, and Charlie Day as Kaiju-obsessed scientist Dr. Newton Geiszler. Their scenes together are probably the most entertaining parts of this movie. Thought their interaction in the movie is pretty short, there is such chemistry between these two that it is impossible not to notice. I could have easily watched a whole movie based solely on both of them.

There is no doubt that Pacific Rim falls below the category of a summer blockbuster movie, just in the lower part of such listing. Yes, it does have the action, the laughs here and there, and the breathtaking scenery, but it also has little to no plot, extremely shallow characters, and it is about 20-25 minutes longer than it should have been. Summer blockbusters are supposed to keep you entertained throughout the whole movie, like World War Z this summer, or for a more similar comparison, Transformers (the first one, not the crap that were the second and third one). In the end, Pacific Rim ends up being one of Guillermo del Toro’s lesser films. And with news already that a script for a sequel is being written, let’s hope that the real Guillermo del Toro steps up and gives it those elements of genius storytelling that he is known for.

I read an article once that talked about how this movie came to be. Will Smith had an idea about making a movie that would put into test the chemistry between a father and his son, a chemistry that had been falling apart for years. His first idea was that the movie would take them into some sort of a road trip in which the car crashes, and given that the father was badly injured in the accident, he was unable to move. Therefore, it was up to the son to look for help in a remote place to be able to save his father and himself. This would seem to be actually a brilliant idea for a movie, being both sentimental and shocking at the same time, given that it would be based on something that can actually happen any day. And in a year full of post-apocalyptic movies, how great would it be to see a movie that goes far from this theme, while at the same time bringing into present time the idea of people that are alone in a remote place and in need of help? Well, guess what. Will Smith suddenly had the urge to be extremely original and move the time to 1,000 years later! Oh, and of course, why wouldn’t he decide to give M. Night Shyamalan, one of the greatest directors in the present day, directing classics such as “The Happening” and “The Last Airbender”, a call? Seriously, what could possibly go wrong? Everything.

“After Earth” takes place 1000 years after the Earth had suffered from irrevocable environmental damages, making humanity abandon it and settle in another world called Nova Prime. The movie follows Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith), who dreams of being a Ranger like his father, Cypher (Will Smith), the most respected Ranger in Nova Prime, who in a war against some alien species whose biggest weapon was another alien species called Ursas (yeah, I don’t really get it either), is able to completely suppress all his fear, a technique called “ghosting”, making him blind to the Ursas, who only see fear. However, when the Ranger Corp. board lets Kitai know that he has not passed the test, he and his father are left disappointed. After Cypher talks with his wife, Faia (Sophie Okonedo), she convinces him to take Kitai on his next and last mission. Unluckily, when on their voyage, an asteroid shower hits the spaceship, leaving only 3 passengers alive: Kitai, Cypher, and an Ursa who was going to be used for training, which managed to escape the spaceship when it crashed. Cypher is left badly injured, with both legs broken, so it is up to Kitai to face his fears and look for the tail of the ship, which had broken off upon its entrance through Earth’s atmosphere, so that he can send a message to Nova Prime to come look for them. Oh, and there’s also some subplot regarding Kitai’s sister being killed and him blaming himself for it, but in reality, who gives a shit. It just makes the movie worse than it already is.

“After Earth” is possibly one of the most unoriginal post-apocalyptic movies to ever come out. When I wrote my review on “Oblivion”, I highlighted the fact that even though it does not necessarily cover new ground, it does give the post-apocalyptic plot a risky twist that ends up working on its advantage. “After Earth”, however, decides not to take any risks at all. It prefers to cover already overused ground, and if anything, the few things that some might argue to be different from other post-apocalyptic movies work against its own sake. There’s nothing in this movie that gathers any possible involvement from the audience, since the plot is as linear and as unimaginative and boring as possible. It is probably as predictable as a romantic-comedy starring Sarah Jessica Parker and some guy who must be drugged to think that she is somewhat attractive. Also, the fact that there is a subplot involving the death of Kitai’s sister just makes things worse. This subplot tries to add some interest into the main plot, but in the end, the movie might have been exactly the same without this unnecessary subplot, or even a little less horrible.

In a post-apocalyptic movie, no matter how bad it is, we can always find some good in its scenery. Sadly, this is not exactly the case for “After Earth”. Now, don’t get me wrong, it is not like if it just looked plain ugly. It just does not try too hard to make the most out of its opportunities. Earth is basically a giant forest, and it really does look beautiful. However, when the movie presents us with the animals that lurk on the surface of the Earth, one would expect that this would be the over-the-top part of the scenery. Nevertheless, this does not happen. In fact, the animals just look average. There’s nothing special in them that might leave the audience impressedl. They are just plain average when we look at how much special effects have grown in recent years. And as for those Ursas, I don’t even have to say how they look. They’re basically the alien from the Alien saga, but with more claws and arms and slime and exoskeleton, you know, the usual. But hey, at least the movie succeeds in making its aliens look even more bug-like than in other movies.

Probably the worst part about this movie is its acting. Will Smith as the respected Ranger Cypher gives one of his most bland performances in recent memory. You can easily tell that Will Smith was trying to give through his character a feeling of importance and leadership. And apparently he thought that by making Cypher have absolutely no emotions, he would transmit this feeling to the audience. Well, guess what, Will: you were wrong. And not only this, but director M. Night Shyamalan and Will Smith decided that it would be better off if they take the biggest star in the film and make him not move throughout 90% of the movie, just sit him there in a spaceship with his legs broken. This makes Jaden Smith the lead in this movie, and it is an utter disaster. As Kitai, Jaden does nothing more than tremble and shake throughout the whole movie. He does not exhibit that same charisma he had in the remake of The Karate Kid. Sure, he is supposed to be scared when he is left alone to save his dad and himself, but it is just too excessive. At some points, it just looks as if he had been holding his necessities for too long and was about to explode. And even worse than this is the execution of his lines in the movie. For some reason, everyone in the movie has a normal American accent, except for him. He has some sort of British/Australian/American accent that just makes listening to him dreadful. Jaden Smith will probably turn out to be as good of an actor as his father at some point, but right now, he is in a process of learning, and he is definitely not ready yet to take such big roles like this one.

“After Earth” is by far the worst addition in this sudden fistful of post-apocalyptic movies, and one of the worst all-around. As far as this year goes, it is at the top of my list for “Worst Movie of the Year”. Worse of all is the fact that M. Night Shyamalan continues in his downfall after starting off with great movies such as “The Sixth Sense” and “Unbreakable”. In addition to this, both Will and Jaden Smith hit rock bottom with this movie. The only positive thing they can take out from this is the fact that it is almost impossible to make a movie worse than this one. In the end, all I can say is this: this movie is real, punishing yourself to watch it is a choice.

Wanna take a guess on whose birthday was it yesterday? You got it: Will Ferrell‘s! The awesome actor, known mainly for his comedy roles, turned 45 yesterday, July 16. In honor of his birthday, I have decided to put together a short list of his best and worst movies, along with a video with some of his greatest moments on screen!

What would you expect from a third installment of a series about friends getting extremely wasted and drugged and ending in new places each time? Well, a movie that does not have to do anything with what the series is known for. Matter of fact, don’t even expect a party (except from Mr. Chow, he is a handful of a party himself). The Hangover Part III is a darker, extremely more violent movie than its predecessors, and though it never reaches the potential of the first film, it does something that the second could not pull off: it keeps the audience laughing all throughout the movie. And if you doubt that this is true, let me just say one thing. The Hangover Part III revolves mainly around the character of Alan (Zach Galifianakis). That is good enough for me, and for anyone who is looking for a good ass laugh this summer.

The Hangover Part III starts off back in Vietnam, in a maximum security prison which has seen how its extremely secure system is no opponent to the one and only Mr. Chow, who started a crazy riot as a cover-up for his escape. Meanwhile, America’s favorite character in the series, Alan, gets into trouble after causing a mass accident on the freeway after an incident occurred with his giraffe (yes, I said “his giraffe”), which causes a heated up fight between him and his father that ends up with one of the two dead and the other one being approached by his friends to send him to rehab. Alan agrees to go to rehab, only if Stu (Ed Helms), Doug (Justin Bartha), and Phil (Bradley Cooper) take him. On their way to rehab, all hell breaks loose. Their car is crashed by a gang led by Marshall (John Goodman), who takes Doug as captive (oh, what a surprise!) until the Wolfpack brings him Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong), which sends them into a long quest to get drug-loving Mr. Chow to come with them, be it the easy way or the hard way, to save their beloved friend.

The Hangover Part III successfully keeps the audience laughing throughout the movie. Centered mainly around the character of Alan, it succeeds in two thing that are possibly the main reasons that I gave this movie 3 stars, instead of a maybe deserved 2.5-star rating. After reading different reviews from acclaimed critics before actually seeing the movie, I was scared that maybe the fact that most of the movie revolves around Alan would get old quickly after the first half of the movie. However, though at the end it is clear that there might have been too much Alan and a lot less Stu and Phil, Todd Phillips, in my opinion, made a pretty good job not only keeping the laughs coming from Alan, but actually giving us more insight into the character of Alan. In the first two movies, Alan was just that fat guy whose ridiculousness and weirdness kept the audience laughing throughout the movie, more so in the first one than in the second one. Part III of the trilogy smartly makes us actually think, care, and worry about Alan’s persona, something that the first two did not actually strive for. This is possibly what I liked the most about this third part of the box-office hit trilogy.

The other thing in which The Hangover Part III succeeds is in the fact that it is so different from the other two movies. The second film was criticized harshly because of its strong resemblance to the first film in every aspect of it. This third film is completely different, and when I say completely different, I might be sugar-coating it. This movie strives to be so different from the other two, that at some points, one can even forget that it is part of the Hangover trilogy. The movie has been negatively approached mainly because of this fact; however, I think this is the reason why this movie is a winner in some way. It is what everyone wanted, something different, and it is being seen as if it were something to be ashamed of doing! Todd Phillips did what everyone wanted, he gave us something new and less predictable, and in my opinion, he went the right direction.

However, not all in The Hangover Part III is golden. The problem of this movie is not the actors, and most importantly, it’s not Todd Phillips, as many think. It’s Phillips’ co-writer, Craig Mazin. Craig Mazin might be best known for co-writing in spoof movies like Scary Movie 3, Scary Movie 4, and Superhero Movie. These are movies with no plot, no character development, no nothing, just laughs that come from the horrible acting presented by its actors and from its parodies of box-office hits, parodies that are sometimes smart, and many times awful. Knowing this, how can the team behind The Hangover Part II and III even think of adding him to the team? Craig Mazin is not good writing this type of comedies, comedies that actually give a damn about plot and characters. The Hangover trilogy is not at all a parody of any movie; in fact, I would even dare say that the first one was actually an innovative comedy. The second film had Craig Mazin written all over it, with few to zero originality and relying heavily on every material that gave the audience a laughing moment in the first film. I’m not gonna say that I did not laugh, because I did still laugh in the second film, but it was probably one of the most unoriginal films I can think of. In the third film, I’m guessing Todd Phillips told Mazin to leave at least 80% of the writing to him, because if it were up to Mazin, I’m pretty sure we would have ended up with the same movie as the first two, but in Cancun or Punta Cana. Still, traces of Mazin jokes could be seen in many of Alan’s scenes and mostly in Mr. Chow’s scenes, who would start off doing something hilarious, but then it would get repetitive, with only a few chuckles being heard from the audience.

The acting in The Hangover Part III was great, overall. Justin Bartha as Doug was pretty descent, since we never actually get a chance to see him act that much, for he is never given too much screen time. Both Ed Helms and Bradley Cooper reprise their roles greatly, and the chemistry between this two is as strong as ever in the third film. John Goodman, one of the few newcomers, does an excellent job as gang leader Marshall, showing us a tough and fearful guy with no soft spot anywhere around him. As for Ken Jeong, I still doubt that he is actually acting. I’m not saying I do not like him, I’m just too damn sure that he is exactly like Mr. Chow in real life, excluding the drugs and alcohol. Ken Jeong must have in Mr. Chow the easiest role he has set a hand upon, and I absolutely love it. Melissa McCarthy also has a small role in the movie as Alan’s love interest,Cassie, and she is as funny as always. However, the real star of this movie is, by far, the lovable Zach Galifianakis. Zach Galifianakis shows in this movie how good of an actor he can really be when given a bigger role. He is able to keep the audience laughing, all by himself, while at the same time, making them feel and care for him. Zach Galifianakis finally shows in The Hangover Part III that he is so much more than a goofy looking guy.

I might have been lucky that I went to a screening of the movie with a pretty big audience that was certainly in a good mood, for they laughed throughout the whole movie. But it is clear for me that this certainly had a small role in the fact that I certainly enjoyed this movie. It exceeds the second film in mostly everything, and though it is not as funny and smart as the first film, it was still able to provide a pretty good package of laugh-out-loud moments. In the end, The Hangover Part III is a good conclusion to a box office record-shattering series.

Let me start off by saying sorry for not writing in over a month. As some of you might know, I was in Europe this semester studying abroad, and I did not finish finals until the last week of May. But now, I’m back in Puerto Rico, and I am ready to write some more! As of the moment, I am currently in the process of writing four reviews, which you might expect to be up any day in the next week or two! However I am still not done writing them, so for now, I’ll leave you guys with a trailer for a movie I am extremely excited for, MACHETE KILLS! The sequel to the 2010 Machete counts once again with Danny Trejo in the lead role as the ex-Federale with a taste for vengeance, Machete, along with recurring roles from Jessica Alba and Michelle Rodriguez. Also joining the cast will be Mel Gibson, Sofia Vergara, Amber Heard, Antonio Banderas, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Mel Gibson, Lady Gaga in her first film role, and none other than Charlie Sheen, as the President of the United States. Director Robert Rodriguez’s Machete Kills will be hitting theaters September 13, 2013.

This morning, I woke up to wonderful news. After the instant comedy classics Shaun of the Deadand Hot Fuzz, the British duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost join forces once again with director Edgar Wright in Wright’s next and last comedy in the “Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy“, The World’s End. The World’s End will follow 5 best friends on a legendary pub crawl that they could not finish back in their teenager days. They must go to 12 pubs and have 12 pints, ending their run in The World’s End pub. However, it seems like a lot has changed since they had last been to that little town where the pub crawl takes place. It even feels like a different planet…

The World’s End stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, along with Martin Freeman (The Hobbit), Eddie Marsan (Sherlock Holmes), and Paddy Considine (Hot Fuzz). It will be directed by Edgar Wright, who is also set to direct Marvel’s Ant-Man.

The film will hit theaters in UK on July 19, 2013 and in US August 23, 2013.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been on a streak for a long time now, doing great movie after great movie. First with Iron Man, followed by The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, and ending it bigger than ever with the record-breaking The Avengers. Now, Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has begun. And, oh boy, what a start. Iron Man 3, which I got the pleasure to see before it was even released in the United States, is the best superhero movie Marvel has released up-to-date. It is what The Dark Knight is to DC; it is Marvel’s perfect film. It is a darker, funnier, and more exciting sequel of the Iron Man series. It is flawless, with an above-perfect performance by Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man and, even more so, as Tony Stark, joined by a superb cast that elevates this movie to other levels of greatness.

Iron Man 3 starts with a flashback to a New Year’s Eve party in 1999. Tony Stark was accompanied by scientist Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall). While on an elevator, they meet disabled scientist Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), who wants to talk to them about his company AIM and how grateful he would be if he could have them form part of the company. Tony Stark tells him to meet him on the rooftop to talk about his project, just so Killian could find out it was a lie after waiting there for a long time. In the present day, a more unstable Tony Stark is faced against a Bin Laden-ish enemy who makes himself be known as The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), who plans to terrorize the United States and wreck apart Stark’s life. This sends Tony Stark on a journey to find The Mandarin and to protect those who he cares the most about. All at the same time, Stark’s journey makes him question: Is he still Tony Stark, or is he only Iron Man?

After the success of the two first films, both directed by Jon Favreau, it was kind of a bummer for people to know that he would not be directing the third one. However, it comes as no surprise that director Shane Black could do an equally great (or dare I say, better) movie. Shane Black, who had already worked with Robert Downey, Jr. in the great neo-noir film Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, is able to mix all the ingredients that had made the first two Iron Man films great – the humor, the action, the adventure, the plot – and add a little bit of his own spice to it, making this Iron Man a darker, more humorous movie than its predecessors, all while being able to hold together the plot at perfection – something that the first Iron Man did, but the second one fell a bit apart while doing. He is even able to add some extremely unexpected plot twists, and I really mean it when I say “extremely unexpected.” Memento unexpected (Okay, maybe not that much, but you get the idea). The best job that Black does with this movie is being able to make an extremely important connection between Iron Man and the last Marvel movie, The Avengers. Details about this I shall not give away, for some might consider it a spoiler (though I think it’s pretty obvious from watching the trailers.)

Another great job that Black does with Iron Man 3 is something that the other ones did not give us much of: Tony Stark. Not Tony Stark, the real identity behind Iron Man, but Tony Stark, the real man. This is what makes the movie a little darker than your average Marvel movie. If you go in there expecting to see Iron Man all the time battling big robotic things, let me tell you, you will be disappointed. Instead, you get to see more of Tony Stark and his persona. You actually care for Stark, knowing everything that he feels and everything that he has been passing through. We even get to see him bond with a young kid called Harley, played amazingly by Ty Simpkins, who you might remember better as the creepy little kid from Insidious. In the end, one is satisfied to actually see a superhero movie where the attention goes mostly to the man, and not the man in the costume.

The acting in this movie is what elevates Iron Man 3 from an extremely great superhero movie to the perfect superhero movie. Robert Downey, Jr. delivers what I think is an Oscar-worthy performance, thanks mainly to the script that he is given, which makes him work harder than on the other Iron Man movies, for he is required to show people the side of Tony Stark that they had still not seen, his more human-side. Robert Downey Jr. has been giving great performances in all of his movies for the past years, even in horribly criticized movies like The Shaggy Dog. However, in Iron Man 3, he gives the performance of his lifetime, which is only slightly matched by the one he gives in Tropic Thunder. By turns funny, by turns serious, by turns just plain awesome, Robert Downey, Jr. gives an all-around perfect performance as Tony Stark and Iron Man in this movie. The rest of the cast is amazing too. Gwyneth Paltrow, Rebecca Hall, and Don Cheadle give out great performances as usual. However, next to Robert Downey, Jr., it is the villains that take the spotlight. Ben Kingsley as The Mandarin has to be one of the best choices that have been done in superhero movies. He is able to transmit to the audience the sense of danger and terror that is supposed to be felt through all the videos he puts out for the world to see throughout the movie, a fear that has only been transmitted better by Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight Rises. Guy Pearce also gives an equally amazing performance as Aldrich Killian, the scientist who seeks revenge after Tony Stark fooled him into thinking he was interested in his company.

In the end, Iron Man 3 will leave you with a sense of fulfillment that you will gain just because you have waited so long to see this movie, and with good reason, since they were constructing the perfect superhero movie while you waited. It has everything that makes up a Marvel movie, from great action sequences to great humor, and adds more to it with the presence of Shane Black as the director. Needless to say is that all actors are marvelously cast and add up to an already great movie. Plus, you have Robert Downey, Jr. giving the performance of his lifetime. And there is still more to come.

Since you read the whole thing, here’s something you might want to know: Stay until after the credits. Nothing important happens, but it’s still an extremely funny scene that’s worth a watch.

If there is one thing I hate about movies that try to deal with the post-apocalyptic world, it is that they all show us more of the same. Earth is a complete wasteland. The protagonist is usually searching for other signs of human life, be it by himself or with one or two other people that have survived whatever struck Earth. Of course, they usually find a group of humans that are living in a small, hidden community they have created, and together, they fight off whatever attacked them, giving Earth a new chance to be what it once was. This is what I was expecting when I was about to watch “Oblivion“, more of the same. Turns out that I was wrong. “Oblivion”, while following parts of the usual simple-minded plot of post-apocalyptic movies, is able to give the plot some unexpected tweaks that make of Oblivion a pretty good movie.

In ” Oblivion”, directed, produced, and co-written by Joseph Kosinski, Tom Cruise stars as Jack Harper, Tech 49, one of the last few humans stationed in the 2077 Earth. Along with his work and romantic partner Victoria (Andrea Riseborough), his job is to extract all of Earth’s remaining vital resources, which had been almost completely destroyed after the Scavs (short for Scavengers), an alien race, invaded it. Victoria and Jack only had two more weeks left in Earth, after which their commander Sally (Melissa Leo) had promised them a place in Titan, the lunar colony where civilization had moved to after the war tore Earth apart. However, when he saves a strange woman (Olga Kurylenko) from a crashed spacecraft, he starts questioning everything that he knows, for this woman had been haunting his dreams for as long as he can remember.

“Oblivion” is one of the most beautiful looking movies of recent times, with Joseph Kosinski, who already showed his eye for creating beautiful imagery in Tron Legacy, showing beauty in what is supposed to be a wasteland. In the beginning of the movie, Jack looks at the New York Giants Stadium, the Super Bowl Champions of 2017, the last Super Bowl celebrated. He is able to remember hearing about this game, and remember the last play of the game that gave the Giants the title: a Hail Mary. Remembering this, one can see how Jack Harper finds hope in the things that he sees in the wasteland that Earth has become. Kosinski is to thank for being able to create such beautiful scenery.

Where “Oblivion” falls flat is in the structuring of the plot. For the first half of the movie, the audience can easily follow everything that is happening, with one of the best and simplest introductions that a movie can offer. However, in the second half, the movie has its ups and downs. The ups definitely come from the “what the f…” moments that the movie smartly offers. I can count from the top of my head three of these. Now, when the plot tries to actually explain these moments, there come the problems. “Oblivion” tries too much to overwhelm the audience by jumping from the present to the past through flashbacks. These flashbacks are useful for some plot points, but at other moments, they just create confusion. These create some plot holes that are never entirely explained in the movie – or at least not explained in an understandable way.

However, the movie is able to make people forget about these plot holes, thanks to outstanding performances by all the actors that take part in it. Tom Cruise, who has been showing what a great actor he is in his recent movies, once again gives a performance to remember. Morgan Freeman, as always, administers his character to perfection. But the biggest surprise yet, in my opinion, is the acting of the two female leads, Andrea Riseborough and Olga Kurylenko. Andrea Riseborough gives a great performance as that perfect worker who does not dare break the rules. She is able to transmit through her character Victoria a sense of complete seriousness, a seriousness that, as one figures out throughout the movie, is due largely to her worries and her anxiousness to be able to reunite with civilization in Titan. Olga Kurylenko gives the best performance I have seen from her as the character who wants Jack Harper to remember the past, being able to show how her character transits from shock, to sadness, to desperation, to happiness. She is the actress who transmits emotions throughout the movie without any doubt.

It is true that “Oblivion” will not go down as one of the best post-apocalyptic movies. However, the fact that “Oblivion” tries to give a new look at these post-apocalyptic movies by twisting the plot a little bit, even if a little bit too much, is what makes this one stand out from other movies of the same genre. And any script problem that “Oblivion” may have, is easily overcome by its beautiful and striking visuals and its outstanding performances.

The Hangover brought us a hilarious new look into what can happen after an awesome night of partying. The Hangover Part II brought us more of the exact same thing, but equally hilarious. Now, after receiving so many criticism for what was done in the second part, Todd Phillips brings us the final chapter to this record-setting franchise. And based on the looks of it, The Hangover Part III will follow a completely different plot. This time, there is no wedding, and apparently, not even a hangover; this one will be going a whole different way. Watch the two trailers that have been put out to the public now!